Of Montreal Glam It Up At The Mod Club

Listening to Of Montreal, you can't help but imagine a maddening genius working away in his bedroom on an eight-track mixer. The layers and layers of guitar, bass, keys and drum machines just don't seem like they could be recreated by a band. But Kevin Barnes can't stay home all the time, so what does he do? He puts together a frantic and energetic bunch of friends to rock this racket out live. Seeing Barnes live was nothing like I expected. The man who I thought was a lonely troubadour turned out to be a serious glam rocker.

The show began with Barnes wearing a puffy wedding dress, a la Kurt Cobain. "Will you marry me, Toronto?" he asked a shocked Mod Club crowd. After taking a swig of champagne, he ripped off his dress to reveal tight white pants, and he quickly added a sparkly, unbuttoned shirt to the ensemble.

From there it was a full-on Scissor Sisters glam rock extravaganza. Barnes and his oddly dressed bandmates pranced around the stage playing songs from both their new disc, The Sunlandic Twins, and its predecessor, Satanic Panic In The Attic.

Kicking off with "Raptures Rapes The Muses" and "So Begins Or Alabee," you knew it was going to be a raucous, pop-filled affair. For 90 minutes, Of Montreal didn't let up.

At one point, Barnes even told a hilariously weird story about insects, cats and death. The best songs of the night were off The Sunlandic Twins. "I Was Never Young," "Forecast Fascist Future" and "Requiem For O.M.M.2" were all huge crowd-pleasers, but the loudest applause was saved for the bass-heavy funk-ish number, "Wraith Pinned To The Mist And Other Games."

Musically, the band were tight the entire night. A drum machine filled in for an actual drummer on several occasions, while the group's three guitar players took turns playing small riffs or harmonizing their instruments to the audience's enthusiastic approval. Barnes did almost nothing wrong the entire night. Some might argue that his multiple costume changes were a bit much, but I'd rather see Of Montreal do it than Cher.

Although I'd still like to see Barnes do a solo show one of these days, having five crazy indie rockers do Elton John impressions was far better than anyone could have imagined.